


Hello Again

by Th13f0fH0p3



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alcohol Withdrawal, F/F, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-01
Updated: 2018-08-01
Packaged: 2019-06-20 05:11:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15526773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Th13f0fH0p3/pseuds/Th13f0fH0p3
Summary: Rose is trying her hand at being sober and she would say it sucks except that now Kanaya doesn't look so sad.





	Hello Again

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Homestuck](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/402411) by Andrew Hussie. 



Another shudder racks her body, a sob threatening to escape her throat. She’s alone in the room, alone with herself and a half empty bottle of vodka. The sheets around her body are damp with sweat, comforter long since pushed to the bottom. Her eyes are squeezed shut as she presses her hands and feet into the mattress to distract herself from the storm inside her head. Nausea churning in her stomach, she rolls her head off the bed and holds a bucket up to her mouth. For the next few minutes the only sound in the room is the wet slick of chunks hitting the bottom of the bucket, of a girl trying to empty the contents of her stomach, of tears hitting metal with a pang. 

When the bile has been reduced to acidic saliva, she slowly rolls her head back onto the bed and stops when she finds herself on her back, staring up at a concrete ceiling. Her almost white blonde curls are pressed to her forehead, her brown skin shining with perspiration, mouth parted to breathe, eyes half closed in exhaustion. The vodka bottle stands on the nightstand tauntingly at her from the corner of her eye and she manages to raise her arm and flip it off. It does not reciprocate the gesture, although she swears that it glints menacingly at her, but at this point she’s probably just hallucinating. Allowing herself one groan as she sits up with more effort than anyone should ever need, she freezes as the sound of footsteps approaching penetrate the thick steel door. Eyes dragging themselves from her stained sheets to the door, she waits as the footsteps crescendo and suddenly stop at her door.

There’s a moment of silence before there’s a sharp knock on the door, “Rose, Vriska says that if you don’t show up for the next training session, which is tomorrow by the way, that she’ll drag you out of this room no matter how many irons you have in the fire.”

Recognizing the feminine voice, she swallows down more acidic saliva but doesn’t say anything, instead opting to shut her eyes and pray that Kanaya doesn’t come in. After a minute of waiting, the troll finally starts to walk away, her footsteps considerably louder as if she were purposefully stomping off. Intense moment having taken most of her energy out of her, Rose eases herself back down and curls up into a shaking, sweaty ball.

Hours later, and she’s standing in her bathroom, pouring vodka down the sink. It’s a meaningless gesture, given that she knows the captchalogue code and could so easily make gallons more. But she does it anyway, feeling a little better despite knowing the futility of her actions, and promptly captchalogue the bottle along with her clothes to burn later. Stepping into the shower-tub, turning on the hot water all the way, she sits in the basin with scalding water beating into her skin. She always feels unclean afterwards, and the only thing that makes her feel less like peeling all of her skin off is water that feels like it’s burning it off. Rose remains there for ten minutes before her skin has an unhealthy red tinge and her whole body is burning. She steps out of the shower onto a towel and drys herself off before uncaptchaloging a fresh set of clothes onto her body. While god pajamas are nice and all, there is only one of pair of them at a time, which means that if you want a fresh set, you have to find a way to burn them.

Luckily for the three god tier inhabitants of the meteor, there is a giant incinerator already in place, although the original purpose is a complete mystery. But Rose Lalonde wasn’t about to go walking around naked as she makes her way to the incinerator, of course not. So, sweaty sheets, clothes, throw up bucket, and vodka bottle successfully captchalogued, she exits her room and follows the oh so familiar route to the glorified furnace. The layout of the meteor isn’t as confusing as initially thought. There are five levels of the meteor, not counting the exterior deck. The lowest level, ruled by crazy clown resident Gamzee Makara, is unofficially off limits, although Terezi sneaks down there to presumably terrorize the crazy bastard. On top of that is where the trolls live, separated into different rooms despite how Terezi and Vriska practically live curled around each other and how Karkat and Kanaya are usually found in the middle of a feelings jam, talking about their respective matesprits. This often results in intense blushing from Kanaya and embarrassed screaming from Karkat as he throws random shit at you. Everyone has learned to leave them alone unless one of them is seen outside of their rooms. On the third floor is the kitchen, community room, training room, and part of Can Town. On the fourth floor is Dave’s domain, but is mostly covered by Can Town, although his room is apparently off limits to even the Mayor and Karkat. And of course on the fifth floor is Rose’s domain, which is actually just her room and a strangely dark level that makes everyone so uncomfortable and on edge they never go up there. Which, incidentally, is where the incinerator is.

It’s also where for some reason Rose runs into a very uncomfortable and embarrassed Vriska. Whether her level of uncomfort is caused by Rose, whatever she is doing, or the dark aura that encompasses the fifth level, the spider themed troll doesn’t even complain about her not showing up to practice for the past few days as she shoves cerulean and teal stained god tier pajamas into the incinerator. 

She does, however, whip her head around and snarl at Rose like she snuck up on her whispering about the motherfucking miracles yo, “What are you doing here?”

Blinking through thick eyelashes, the Seer stands in front of the incinerator door and uncaptchalogues her entire inventory, “Well, I presume, the same thing as you’re doing. Getting rid of the evidence.”

“Ugh you are so disgusting, Lalonde!” Her freckled face (trolls can have freckles?) lights up with a cerulean light as she growls at you. “It’s a wonder anyone puts up with you!”

She’s about to storm off just as Rose stuns her by turning to her and smiling, “You look cute when you blush.”

“My- what the fuck are you talking about? Ew are you-” The Thief blushes harder despite her best efforts as she turns to leave. “You’re seriously messed up.”

She stomps away, steel toed boots ringing out across the floor as she storms out of the area. Giving a half amused snort, Rose turns to make her way back to her room, fully intending to sleep for the next three years, until she realizes she burned her last pair of sheets and has to go alchemize more. Unfortunately the only alchemiter in the entire meteor is on level three, where everyone is usually hanging out, not counting Gamzee and Rose, of course. She considers just laying on her mattress but shakes the thought away and finds herself on the third floor, drawing the least amount of attention by captchaloging her shoes to decrease her noise level and taking a very roundabout way to the alchemiter. But even the most roundabout way takes her right past the massive community room, where Karkat and Dave are often curled up on a couch watching a romcom.

As she walks by, a gruff voice calls out to her, “Hey, asshole! Come here!”

Rose stops in her tracks and turns to the voice to find a disgruntled Karkat waving her over. Her brother’s shades are off, revealing his unnatural red eyes, and without anything to hide behind, his emotions are painfully obvious. His eyes are filled with tired anger, dread, and surprise. If only to spite Dave and his totally rational but still hurtful new perspective on her, Rose walks over to the couple and watches as her brother’s matesprit holds up two DVDs.

“Should we watch Good Luck Chuck or Karate Kid but the one with Jaden Smith?” Karkat’s usual volume of screaming at the top of his lungs has been reduced to a quiet yell and it’s slightly disturbing.

Rose’s eyebrows shoot up, “Karate Kid? What’s this? Something that isn’t a romcom potentially being watched by famous romcom lover Karkat Vantas? This is scandalous! Someone should call a dashing woman to sweep me off my feet for soon I may faint!”

It’s then that his thick eyebrows furrow and his volume returns to normal, “Hey fuck you, Lalonde! Who do you think you are judging my shit like that? I have good tastes in movies and while romcoms are the reigning champ of all things movie, I do fucking appreciate other genres! Not like you would understand! You’re just a crusty old b-”

Cut off by a strategically placed hand, Karkat’s screams of anger become muffled, “Come on now, Rose. You’ve given a perfectly good Karkat anxiety. Look at him.”

“I’m sure I can find someway to make up for my horrible crime,” Rose turns to Karkat, who still looks absolutely pissed off. “For the record, I think you should go with Karate Kid.”

Making her leave while she still can, Rose finds that her new soundtrack for the next few minutes is Karkat screaming at her about movies and why Good Luck Chuck and Karate Kid were both valid options and that her vote was swayed by her initial shock. While the onslaught of words continues, she punches in a queue of items for the alchemiter to alchemize and sits down on a pile of failed bolts of cloth next to the machine. As the items start to appear, a tall jade blood leans against the door frame to watch Rose as she rubs her forehead.

“I didn’t expect to see you up here, er, down here,” the Seer’s head whips up to look at the speaker before she groans, holding her head in her hands as she stares at the floor. “...Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine it’s just…” Kanaya makes her way to the pile and sits next to her. “My head just hurts.”

“Mhm,” the troll murmurs in affirmation, rubbing her matesprit’s back. “It’s been too long since we last spoke, or even saw each other, Rose.”

Reaching over her shoulder, the Seer grabbed the Sylph’s hand and kissed the top of it gently, her voice soft, “I know, Kanaya. I know.”

The two remain there for longer than is necessary, just holding hands, basking in an innocence so rarely seen on the meteor. For a moment they’re both thirteen again, meeting each other for the first time with the kind of awkwardness only teens can pull off. For just that moment, Kanaya isn’t angry at Rose and Rose isn’t angry at herself. Then the ding of the alchemiter comes and Rose looks up at Kanaya as she leans down to kiss the shorter girl. Smile tugging on the corner of her mouth, the god tier reaches up to catch her face and their lips meet. It’s a slightly bittersweet kiss, a welcome back but also an angry hello from being gone so long. It’s a kiss that leaves them both slightly breathless, foreheads pressed against each other’s, staring each other in the eyes, a connection returning.

**Author's Note:**

> I might add more but for now I'll just keep it as a oneshot


End file.
